Little Changes
by IcefireImmortal
Summary: The Brotherhood of Evil has fallen. Jump City is peaceful. Everything should be great, right? Wrong. Something is bothering Raven, and she can't figure out what. Rather blatantly BBRae. Enjoy!


Hello! I was just thinking and an idea for a fic popped up. So here we are!

xxx

Raven was annoyed. It had been weeks since the Brotherhood of Evil, and crime was almost nonexistent, save for the occasional petty thug. The Titans had, therefore, been spending a lot of time at home. That didn't bother Raven much; she had found a new bookstore since her old one had been closed down, and she had plenty to read and study to pass the time. No, the quiet wasn't what had her inexplicably irritated. The source of her aggravation was that something had changed - beyond the obvious crime shortage - and Raven couldn't quite figure out what it was. She was positive it was one of the other Titans, because nothing in the Tower was different. But for the life of her, she couldn't pin down the change. And so Raven was annoyed.

The answer to her unspoken question came a few days later in a sudden flash. She had walked into the living room to make her tea and discovered that the other Titans were eating a breakfast Beast Boy had obviously prepared, judging by the abundance of complaining on Cyborg's part and the smell of tofu. She braced herself for Beast Boy's imminent pestering to try to get her to eat and waited. And unfortunately (in her opinion), she wasn't wrong in her prediction.

"Hey Raven! Try some tofu eggs! You have to! They're delici-o-o-u-us!"

Raven turned to face the green boy, head tilted down at an angle as usual so that she could look him in the eyes with one of her time-perfected withering glares - only to find herself staring at his chin. She jerked her head up, startled, and realized what she had failed to notice properly before. Beast Boy had grown; he was now almost as tall as Raven herself. That was what had been bothering her!

Beast Boy frowned, worried. "Are you okay, Raven? You're staring at me weird."

Raven blinked and refocused. "I'm fine. And I'll pass on the eggs."

xxx

Weeks passed. Raven watched sourly as Beast Boy eclipsed her height and became nearly as tall as Robin. She had already realized that Beast Boy's growth spurt had officially made her the shortest Titan. Not that height mattered much, but Raven had always felt a tiny bit of satisfaction in being just a few inches taller than at least one of her teammates. Now she was completely dwarfed by the others. She found herself flying a bit more often in order to put her head above Beast Boy's and make her lack of height less noticeable.

Her efforts, however , were somewhat in vain. Along with his new height, Beast Boy had put on a bit more muscle. He no longer looked skinny and scrawny in his tight uniform; in fact, he had needed to get his old suits tailored to accommodate his growth spurt. In a small corner of her mind, Raven had to admit that the the change suited him. By no means did he look bad. She was torn between annoyance and a different emotion she couldn't figure out.

Business continued as usual in Titan's Tower. Raven spent most of her time alone in her room, meditating, reading, and studying spells to distance herself from Beast Boy. She had found that spending time around Beast Boy - whose voice was lowering slightly in tone and losing some of its squeakiness - evoked that nameless emotion. It bothered her, and so she decided to ignore it as best as she could. However, despite her efforts, or perhaps because of them, he seemed to be trying to talk to her more and more often. She left her room less, and started teleporting to the kitchen to get food so that he couldn't intercept her in the halls. This didn't deter Beast Boy, and, to her dismay, he came to her room and knocked on her door.

"Raven, you okay? 'Cause you've kinda been shut up in there for while, and we're all getting worried. Robin said we should leave you alone, but... Well, the last time you locked yourself up like this... you kinda brought Malchior out of that book, so... I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

There it was again, that bizarre emotion, the one she couldn't figure out. But that wasn't important, because Beast Boy was standing outside her door, and she had to think of a way to make him leave her alone.

"Raven? You're in there, right?" Beast Boy now sounded a bit more worried than before.

"Yeah," Raven replied through the door. "I'm here."

"Oh..."

There was an awkward silence between the two. Raven decided to end it by sighing and sliding the door open. Beast Boy stepped back, obviously caught off guard boy the sudden movement. He grinned with relief when he saw Raven, only to frown and furrow his brows slightly. "Are you not sleeping right.? You've got bags under your eyes." He reached out instinctively, and it was Raven's turn to step back in surprise. This was actually caused in part by a sudden wave of the strange emotion. This time, she thought it almost felt as though she had experienced the emotion before. She was immediately distracted from the thought by Beast Boy's concerned expression.

"I'm fine," she said in response to his question. That wasn't quite true, however. She was constantly kept awake by a storm of emotions that took all of her energy to control so that her powers didn't blow up her room.

Beast Boy didn't seem satisfied with her answer. He continued to frown at her , as if lost in thought, before lifting his arms slightly and saying, "I think you could use a hug."

Raven, slightly throw off by the unexpected statement, was about to refuse when she decided that maybe it wasn't a bad idea. Wordlessly, she stepped forward and accepted his offer. The top of Raven's head came roughly even with his eyes, and when he wrapped his arms around her, her head fit neatly into the curve of his shoulder. She could feel his cheek against her hair and could hear his strong heartbeat in his well-muscled chest. She sensed the odd feeling again, but for some reason, it felt okay this time. Nice, even. And the familiarity came with it. She realized when she had felt it before: Malchior had made her feel something like this before she realized he had lied to her. Now, however, the feeling was stronger, more sure. In a corner of her mind, the one that had thought Beast Boy looked good after his growth spurt, she started to get an inkling of what the emotion might be. Attraction? No way. Beast Boy was still an idiot. A taller, stronger idiot, but an idiot all the same. No way could she have fallen for him. Still, she couldn't deny that hugging him was nice. And she was the happiest she'd been in a while. She decided she'd ignore it for now, figure it out later.

After a few more seconds, they let go. Raven smiled, and Beast Boy did the same in response. "Better?" he asked.

"Yeah. Thanks. I needed that."

"No problem. So... you wanna have some lunch? I made some tofu casserole!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Of course it's tofu."

He grinned. "Is that a yes?"

Raven shrugged. "Why not. As long as I don't have to have the casserole."

"But it's good!"

"That's your opinion. I don't necessarily share it."

As they walked down the hall towards the kitchen, Raven thought to herself that maybe Beast Boy getting taller wasn't such a bad thing.


End file.
